Tread carefully

I’ve never had swollen ankles and morning sickness and raging hormones and a stomach the size of Alaska. I’ve never had to push a human being out of my body.

And I’ve never had to deal with what comes after pregnancy.

I can see why some women, especially underage girls, would not be able to handle the task of raising a child. I understand that adoption, or even abortion, is a better choice sometimes.

But really, at some point, you have to make a decision. You’re pregnant and don’t want the child. So which is it going to be — abortion or carrying the child to term?

Last May, a 17 year-old girl in Utah paid a man to beat her up in the hopes of aborting her baby. She was in her seventh month, when abortion is illegal.

As a result, the Utah state legislature put forth a bill that would criminalize illegal late-term abortions. It would clear up a lot of gray areas in abortion law. In doing so, it gets rid of much of the case-by-case stuff — which isn’t always good.

Many states already have laws in place covering fetal homicide, which bring extra charges against people who assault or murder pregnant women and harm their unborn children. This law provides extra coverage but also creates more for government overreaching.

“Prosecutors have a lot of discretion, and miscarriage is a sad but common event in connection with pregnancy,” said Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights.

“This bill would cast suspicion, potentially, on every single miscarriage.”

The loophole in the Utah law — seeking abortion is not illegal, so the girl wasn’t technically in the wrong for trying to get one — should be closed. It is illegal to have an abortion in the third trimester.

The baby is often big enough to live on its own at that point. It’s a person at that point. If the girl didn’t want the baby, then she should have given it up for adoption — she only had a couple months left, after all, and if she wanted an abortion, she should have had one earlier.

Her baby survived and was adopted by a Utah couple. That girl was in the wrong and does not deserve protection under the Utah law.

But other mothers do. While the idea of closing a loophole is a good one, turning a gray area to a black-and-white area isn’t. According to the Times, critics contend that this was a freak case, but now “local prosecutors (have) huge new powers to inquire about a woman’s intentions toward her unborn child.”

Utah — or any state — should be careful about abortion legislation. Too many restrictions and codified penalties could end up hurting innocent mothers whose only crime was to trip down the stairs.


E-mail: hanns@indiana.edu